Nostalgia, cloth cats and 60s animation revelations: delving into the worlds of Bagpuss and The Clangers

“Bagpuss…was just an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams. But Emily loved him,” as the sweet and slightly gloomy cadence to the show went. She certainly did, as did this Emily; and she still does 20-odd years since first setting eyes on him.

And so a new exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood feels like a lovely, cuddly triumph; turning nostalgia buttons straight up to 11 and hopefully introducing a new little audience to the world of Bagpuss, and his weird, snouty outer-space pals The Clangers. Not to be confused, as I overheard one visitor doing, with Peppa Pig.

The show, entitled Clangers, Bagpuss & Co. is a small in size but comprehensive in content retrospective of the work of the shows’ creators Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, who formed production company Smallfilms. There’s a lot to learn here, not least that The Clangers name references the sound of a metal lid landing on the moon’s surface; and that Professor Yaffle, Bagpuss’ wise bird pal, was based on the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

As well as the “awwws” the show elicits (I for one had to physically stop myself squealing out loud), it also offers a wonderful insight into the early days of producing televised animation series way before the advent of CGI. Instead, the little characters’ worlds were painstakingly created from a barn and adapted pigsty in the Kent countryside. The puppets were filmed using a stop-motion film camera that was adapted “using a small motor and bits of Meccano", according to the V&A.

The 16mm film Bolex camera is on show, and with it we see the reality of making animations in the 1960s: Ivor the Engine used 25 frames per second, a whopping 7,500 for a five-minute episode. The show feels like a paean and a celebration of simpler times, and shows the cottage-industry approach to production that Smallfilms fostered. Joan Firmin, Peter’s wife, created the Clangers’ bodies from pink wool, and created their snazzy little outfits drawing inspiration from Twiggy’s fashion-forward clothes at the time.

“We all hold a special place in our hearts for one or more of Smallfilms’ creations,” says Alice Sage, curator of the exhibition. “Beyond telling marvellous, captivating stories, Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate’s work encouraged children to look at the world with curiosity. Oliver’s distinctive voice as narrator never spoke down to their young audience, and they weren’t afraid of dealing with complex ideas in a magical way. The stories have stood the test of time. As well as looking at how these programmes were made, we also hope to capture the spirit of these timeless gems.”